Some of the slangy expressions especially the one with different grammar patterns confuse you because you have been learning “proper” Japanese. Unfortunately text books and human teachers at Japanese school tend to avoid teaching slang.

But actually you see or hear these all the time in daily conversation or on TV.

In my opinion, if you are comfortable, go ahead and start adopting them but if you only use slang, people might think you are 軽い( = karui) shallow. waa

Still it is fun to learn slangy expressions and you will understand young people’s “street talk” much better.

Many of this type of slang words will disappear eventually. For example, we used to say KY for 空気読めない ( = kuuki yomenai) can’t read between the lines, but we don’t hear it so often now.

So I would like to teach you some of the slang patterns today.These are just a few part of them and I will keep adding more in later lessons. Ready?

めっちゃ ( = Meccha) is mainly used in Kansai area. It sounds kind of cute.

Ex.めっちゃ好き！ ( = Meccha suki!) I love it!

From the picture above:

「このサイト、チョーうけるんだけど…www」

( = Kono saito choo ukerun dake do..wwww)

I love this site. It’s hilarious.… LOL!

•受ける／うける／ウケる ( = ukeru) hilarious, funny, to get a kick out of something.

•w means 笑い ( = warai) which meansHaha…. or LOL!The more “w”s you have, the more you are laughing.

(Just written form.)

「ってか、リアルにすごくね？」

(=Teka, riaru ni sugoku ne?)

I mean isn’t it awesome?

•リアルに ( = riaru ni)really It is from “real”

リアル ( = riaru)＋ noun : authentic something/someone

「リアル〜！！」 ( = riaruu) This is too realistic. It is authentic.

リア充 ( = riajuu) blog word

←リアル生活が充実している

( = Riaru ni seikatsu ga juujitu shiteiru)

to have a fulfilling real life.

•~ね？ ( = ~ne?) Ending the phrase with ね？ ( = ~ne?) Mainly for boys.

Ex.すごくない？ ( = Sugoku nai?)

→すごくね？ ( = Sugoku ne?)

Ex. 食べたくない？ ( = Tabetaku nai?)

→食べたくね？ ( = Tabetaku ne?)

OK, that’s enough. I will keep adding 若者言葉 ( = Wakamono kotoba)here or in other lessons. But I think you actually need to hear how they talk. !HI!

***************

I found a good example of “natural” 若者言葉 ( = Wakamono kotoba) in a video clip.

When you go to a movie theater, you will see previews, commercial and stuff. This is a short and fun movie clip made by the movie company TOHO. This clip is often shown right before the main feature starts. There are different versions and they are all very popular now.

Since I am not sure how long they will be up on Youtube, please watch the video clip ASAP and check the following lesson.

If they take down the video, I may delete this lesson! So study it right now!!

They won’t make you burst into laughter, but will make you giggle くすっ！( = kusu) because it has ゆるゆる感 ( = yuruyuru kan) loose and relaxing feeling.

Note : You may hear ゆるい ( = yurui) loose, relaxing, laid back. often somewhere. It is one of trendy words as well.

ゆるキャラ ( = yuru kyara) A local humorous mascot which represents each area to promote the area.

Now before we see the video clip, let me introduce the two main characters in the clip. They are made out of paper so one of them is called 紙ウサギロペ ( = Kami Usagi Rope) Paper RabbitRope and the other one is called 紙リスアキラ ( = Kami Risu Akira)Paper Squirrel Akira

Since アキラ ( = Akira) is older than ロペ ( = Rope) he is called 先輩 ( = senpai) senior. It is unclear whether they used to go to the same school or work in the same company.

Arigatou Gozaimasu, Too Understood Sensei. But I Got One More Question Please:
I Noticed In A Some Dictionnary A Word “Sama” In The End Of A Defined Term.
Ex: (…Ni Natte Iru Sama)
What’s That Word Sensei?

There are so many kanji so I can’t teach you all of them here but
Kanji has kun-reading and on-reading.
For example
kanji 読
kun reading よ（む）= yo (mu)
on reading どく = doku
* Kun reading is used individually with hiragana.

okay thanks for the explanation. does this rules apply for Name too since name of Japanese people uses kanji i mean do their name only uses Onyomi reading (unless stated by the person him or herself of course) :-D

☆流行語 : Buzz words, trendy words
★若者言葉 : buzz words which are used among young people

流行語 is not always used by young people. It could be a word or a quote from news, politicians, athletes, comedians,celebrities, etc.
外来語 means Japanese words which originally came from foreign language* terms (*Mainly from Western language.)

Can i ask you something? I’ve watched an anime and there was a character who always said something which sounded like ‘majitsuka/ga’ but in her context (I watched with subtitles–such a shame -.-)
it was used like: that’s so weird, so grazy something in this direction.
Is this right? I mean common and right how I understood if yes would it be written with Kata/Hiragana or Kanji? I know majitsuka has also another meaning but i forgot..
And can you tell me what:
I’m (so) bored!
Thats’s so weird/stupid!
Are you kidding me?!
It’s georgious!
You are georgious!
That’s so much fun!
He/She is so much fun!
He/She is so kind.
would be in japanese?
Haha, that’s just some things which popped in my mind where I though I could need it somewhere..

What you have heard must be
まじっすか？= Majissuka? (slang but politer than まじか）
or
まじか？= Majika? (slang/ more rough than まじっすか)
They mean “Are you serious?””No way!” “I can’t believe it”
So it could be “That’s strange (I can’t believe it!)”

Good! you found the answer from my りゃ（あ）lesson.
欲しければ or 欲しけりゃ means “If you want me to do something”
旅行して欲しけりゃ夏休みにイタリアへ行かない？→(correction) You mean “If you want to go traveling, why don’t you go to Italy”？ Then it will be
旅行したけりゃ夏休みにイタリアに行けば？
If you are asking this person to go to Italy with, you can say
旅行したけりゃ夏休みにイタリアに一緒に行かない？

I’m watching Manaberu News now and one of the guests answers the question of the audience. Then Ikegami says じゃあ、もうここからは士田さんにお願いしましょうか。 And he says 分かりました, as if he would take over from that time and be the new show host. Ikegami then says ノリがいいですね.

How would u translate that ノリがいいですね? What does he mean by that? That he has a good sense of humor?

@Cygunus
Welcome to Maggie’s site and thank you so much for your comment. Some people write 劇ウマ (meaning 劇的に=gekiteki ni = dramatically delicious) instead of 激.
But you are right. 激 is more common so I have changed it. Thank you!
GTO!!! なつかしい！また来てね。

The way they talk is very natural. They don’t talk clearly with full of colloquial expressions so I bet many of older Japanese people wouldn’t understand them either. However this series is very popular and many people go to the theater looking forward to seeing the clip.

友はfriendです、達は more than one personです. だから、友達はfriends？なんが、彼は私の友達ですで言うが？

それから、わたし達や生徒達や、たちで読みます。友達がともたちじゃない、ともだちで読みますなんですが？？

Just in case you don’t understand me… 友達 should mean friends, right? why I read something like he’s friends in Japanese(彼は私の友達です)? Isn’t that wrong? Why is 友達 tomodachi when all the other words are written as tachi with same kanji?

To answer your previous question, I don’t have a favourite snack, all snacks are good:] I am sure Maggie will agree!

You are right! We use 達=tachi for plural. 君達、私達、若者達…etc.
友達 originally meant “friends”, a plural form, long time ago and but it has lost the meaning as plural friends and we use it for both singular or plural friends in modern Japanese.
We occasionally hear 友達たち=tomodachi tachi as a plural form but it is not that common yet.

So if we hear,
彼らは私の友達です。 (They are my friends. )
We know there are more than one friend because of the subject, 彼ら=they.

But if we hear,
明日友達が来ます。
we have no idea how many friends this person would bring.
So you’d better say,
明日、”２、３人”友達が来ます。→a couple of friends
or
明日、”たくさん”友達が来ます。→many friends

Great question, Tiffany. I have never thought about this but it is confusing, huh?

Please wait for the previous question. There are lots of guest teachers but I do remember. :D

Arigatou Maggie-sensei
I thought that might be the case. I was confused by the phrase – ‘to be sucked’, which suggests something else entirely. It’s probably better to say ‘to be in a situation that sucked’

Hi,Leee! アウト＝ダメ＝ヤバイ
In this case, the situation that they might be eaten by sharks sucks. Also physically they will be in trouble, so it is アウト!
We usually use it when there is no way to escape from the trouble or situation.
Also アウト can be used as “out of question”